Laporta still can't believe it, the Real Madrid star who almost signed with Barça

For decades, Europe's top teams have been paying close attention to young players emerging from South America. Barcelona and Real Madrid are two of the clubs that have benefited the most from this. The good results they obtained with players such as Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Lionel Messi, Neymar and Vinicius have led them to take them at younger and younger ages.

In fact, this summer Barcelona paid more than $40 million to sign Vitor Roque, a young Brazilian striker from Athletico Paranaense, who will join Xavi Hernandez's squad from 2024. And a few months ago Real Madrid did the same with Palmeiras striker Endrick.

One of the last players to arrive at Real Madrid on these terms was Rodrygo Goes. The Brazilian winger was signed in 2019 when he had just a few games in Santos. Florentino Pérez trusted in his talent and paid a fortune for him. But now the player revealed that he was very close to playing in Barcelona.

This is what he told in an interview with Globo: "I was practically done with Barcelona, I only needed to sign, and I asked my father, 'Nothing from Real Madrid?' My father got angry with me. 'We have an offer from Barcelona on the table, you're going to play with Messi and you want them to wait. Are you kidding?' But in the end he waited, because Barcelona also had a problem with Santos and couldn't sign."

Just in time

His arrival at La Casa Blanca came just a few days after that talk with his father, after playing a match in which he showed a great performance: "I scored three goals, gave an assist, we won 5-2. During the game Real Madrid called my father and he didn't even have to make the proposal. They just asked me if I wanted to go and my dad already knew my answer".